1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of mobile telecommunications, and more particularly, to utilization of customer care numbers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In typical current 611 customer care implementations, when a customer dials 611 for customer care, 611 routing is performed by the serving mobile switching center (MSC). The MSC translates the 611 call to a number that routes the call to the appropriate Customer Care Center. The MSC utilizes customer specific information, such as the International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (IMSI), to make the translations.
Referring to FIG. 1, in one conventional approach each of the MSCs 107 in a carrier's network 100 maintains a table with all home customer care numbers. The customer care numbers are typically associated with a subscriber based on the Mobile Country Code (MCC) and Mobile Network Code (MNC) within the International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (IMSI). When the MSC receives a 611 call, the MSC analyzes the call and determines the appropriate home customer care number for the particular call based on the MCC/MNC. However, that approach requires the provisioning of hundreds of MSCs, and it becomes difficult to update or change the home customer care information in each MSC. For example, if there is a change to 611 number translation, all the MSCs in the carrier's network have to be provisioned to reflect the change. Further, it is not easy to provide additional customer care capability such as customer care routing based on criteria such as time of day, location, day of the week, etc.
In addition, because the translations of the customer care calls are based on the subscriber's IMSI, typically the MCC/MNC, the MSC is unable to distinguish between subscribers of a carrier and subscribers of a reseller, who resells carrier services to reseller subscribers. Thus, in situations where a carrier sells cellular service to a reseller, and the MCC/MNC of the reseller's subscribers is the same as the carriers, it is impossible to route reseller's subscribers to their own customer care number(s) via 611. Instead, resellers use their own 800 numbers for customer care. In addition, because the translations are done in the MSC, unless the serving MSC is in the carrier's own network or the carrier operating the serving MSC has an agreement in place with the visited MSC, 611 calls will not be recognized as a customer care number when a subscriber is roaming in another carrier's network.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have more versatile customer care capability.